City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare 

Title: City of Bones 

Author: Cassandra Clare  

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Published: July 10 2004, Walker Books

Pages: 442

Blurb: When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know... 

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

With a story like City of Bones it can either go two ways; it could be over packed with action and confusing as hell or it could be interesting and kick ass/awesome.  Personally I found it to be the second one - mainly because City of Bones was the right mix of knowledge and action. The book tells the story of Clary and how she gets mixed in with the Shadowhunters and Downworlders all because she tries to save her mum. She meets “demon” hunters, vampires, a warlock and werewolves. She learns about her mother’s past, the Circle, Valentine and meets her brother! There was a lot of betrayal, confessing of love, people getting beaten up and a lot of history lessons. Overall it was a lot packed into 442 pages but somehow it worked.

Clary 

So Clary witnesses a demon getting killed and arrives home to find the place trashed and her mother missing. The girl’s gonna have a lot of questions to ask. And she asks a lot and I understand that. She’s not like the characters that take a one word answer, nod their head and continue to stay with the guy they just literally met. Logic. I love characters that can hold their own against the “bad guys” and not need the love interest(s) to save them. However you can`t expect an untrained – I thought I was human 24 hours ago – scared 15/16 year old girl to battle demons. But she wasn`t completely useless, she had her own back. Also the way she handled the truth, she was calm most of the time. I expected her to freak out.

One thing I really hated about her character was how she compared herself to her mother and Isabelle. Yeah I get it you think you’re ugly compared to Isabelle – we don`t want to hear it every time you see her. Plus that’s no reason to hate on someone.

Jace

 If you’ve watched the movie; Jace is portrayed as a gothic, brooding and dark character. And I’m like no – Jace is a charming, witty and cocky guy who makes jokes at the most unexpected times.  Yeah he kills demons for a living and is haunted by his “dad’s” death doesn`t mean he has to be a brooding character.

What I don`t like is how quickly and how much information he gave to Clary about Shadowhunters – dude have you heard of trust and secrets?

Romance

Oh. Well I like how it isn`t the main focus of the book. It happened quite fast and ended really quickly. Also near the end Clary was like “nothing happened” well you did kiss that kinda counts as something.

And that my fellow readers was a four star book